Raising the Bar for Interim and Fractional Leadership

May 21, 2026 – As companies face mounting pressure to move faster and adapt to constant change, interim and fractional executives are increasingly being brought in not simply to maintain stability, but to drive transformation from day one. Organizations today are seeking experienced leaders who can step into critical roles, solve immediate business challenges, and create momentum while long-term leadership strategies continue to evolve.

A big shift in interim and fractional is that many teams are now looking for acceleration when in the past, stability was the primary driver, according to Brian Lafer, leader of TrueBridge, True’s interim, fractional, and advisory executive search division. “A few years ago, companies were mainly bringing in interim leaders to hold things together,” he said. “While there are still cases where execution support and morale reinforcement are top of mind, we’re seeing more and more an expectation for executives to walk in on day one and move the business forward.”

“Whether it’s a CFO, COO, or functional leader one level down on an interim (five days per week) or fractional (two to four days per week) capacity, companies are looking for someone who can make an immediate impact,” Mr. Lafer said. “At the same time, hiring full-time, long-haul executives requires more consideration, more time, and sometimes companies land on a different skillset entirely once they realize what an interim leader can solve for.”

TrueBridge takes a different approach to interim leadership than many providers. “We’ve built TrueBridge very intentionally to be different from a typical marketplace model,” Mr. Lafer explained. “A lot of the interim space is built with scale in mind, large underutilized databases and open platforms, but that approach tends to break down at the executive level. We’re highly selective, accepting only about 25 percent of executives into our network.”

Related: Here’s How Interim Leaders Give Companies A Strategic Edge

“We’re looking for leaders who have chosen interim as a career path for the foreseeable future, have done the role before, and know how to step in and deliver immediate impact,” said Mr. Lafer. “If a client needs a CFO, it’s someone who has already been a successful CFO. We don’t do step-up placements. We also do the bulk of the work upfront so clients aren’t sorting through a laundry list of options. We’ll bring forward a small number of fully vetted leaders, typically three to five, that we trust to solve a very specific problem.”

A Unified Practice

“On top of that, we complete referencing before a client moves forward with any of our proposed candidates,” Mr. Lafer continued. “Structurally, we operate as a unified practice. The same senior team stays involved from the initial conversation through to placement, and our teams are aligned by focus areas. That means clients are working with people who actually understand the role and the context, without the handoff friction you see with separate sales and delivery teams.”

TrueBridge is True’s interim, fractional, and advisory executive search division. Brian Lafer, who leads TrueBridge, has spent his career at the center of the shift toward flexible human capital. Based in Chicago, he and the TrueBridge team work with companies across the U.S. and EMEA to navigate leadership gaps, transformation and growth, structuring interim and fractional C-suite solutions designed for immediate impact. Prior to joining TrueBridge, he spent over a decade building and leading commercial teams as an early pioneer in project-based executive solutions.

Being part of the broader True platform is probably our biggest advantage, Mr. Lafer noted. “We’re not relying on a static database or a pool of only career interims who have been doing this for 10 or 15 years,” he says. “Given we’re a part of the True platform, we’re constantly vetting new, high-caliber executives, people who are coming out of operating roles and are highly relevant to today’s challenges. That gives us a much broader and more current pipeline. We can tap into leaders with very recent experience, while still maintaining access to seasoned interim operators. It also impacts how we reference. We’re able to back-channel in real time, leveraging relationships and data across the platform. So when we present a candidate, there’s a level of conviction behind it that’s hard to replicate in a standalone model or more traditional executive search firms.”

Interim Finance Leaders

Finance is oftentimes the natural entry point for interim, according to Mr. Lafer. “It represents about half of our work, but the way clients are using that talent has evolved,” he explained. “Instead of gap-fill roles, companies are bringing in interim CFOs, FP&A leaders, and controllers to help professionalize the business, prepare for a transaction, or navigate a period of change. What’s different is the level of precision.”

Related: Why Interim CHROs Are Becoming Essential in a Rapidly Changing Workforce

Mr. Lafer said that clients are coming to them and saying, “Here are the two or three things we need to get done.” And we’re matching that to someone who has done exactly that before. Because of our connectivity to True, they are also seeing a different caliber of finance talent particularly in tech-enabled and growth environments. “That’s been a meaningful differentiator,” Mr. Lafer said.

Mistakes in Hiring

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is waiting too long to act, Mr. Lafer pointed out. “They know something isn’t working, but they hesitate because they don’t have a full-time replacement lined up,” he said. “That creates risk internally and externally. Interim gives you a way to move forward immediately and keep critical initiatives on-track while you figure out the long-term solution. And because we operate with a private, pre-vetted network, we can do that very quietly.”

“At the C-suite level, confidentiality is crucial,” Mr. Lafer said. “You can’t broadcast those needs externally and most of our world-class team, coming from top professional services firms, are used to handling these complex situations. Our approach allows clients to make changes without creating unnecessary disruption.”

“You’re increasingly placing leaders beyond finance across tech, marketing, HR, and revenue,” Mr. Lafer continued. “What’s driving that expansion? Many times it’s off the back of a first interim finance search or another role to keep a key strategic initiative in flight. A client works with us, sees the quality of the talent, and realizes this can be a broader part of their strategy. That’s when you start to see what I’d call a domino effect. They’ll come back and ask, do you have someone for this? whether it’s a CMO, a CTO, or a revenue leader. And often, they’re also thinking about fractional solutions as a way to bring in higher-caliber talent in a more flexible, cost-effective way. At that point, it’s less about function and more about the situation. We’re focused on solving the problem in front of the business with someone who has done it before.”

Looking Ahead

The pace of change is accelerating, and with it, the pressure on executives to navigate new technologies and operating models, Mr. Lafer explained looking ahead. “This has raised the bar for what ready on day one truly means,” he said. “There is a significant cost to doing nothing when things aren’t working. Interim and fractional leadership offers a low-risk way to bridge that gap, providing immediate access to the specific expertise a client needs at that moment. Because these professionals bring deep pattern recognition, they can move faster than traditional hires. As companies strive to stay flexible without losing momentum, I expect this model to become the new standard for driving business forward.”

Related: Hiring Interim CEOs for PE Portfolio Companies

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media